Thread: 'Brain waste' thwarts immigrants' career dreams

With legal immigrants I'm sorry to hear that-but perhaps the conditions back in their native countries are less advanced than here, what they need is simply to go back to school to get on the level that doctors are on here with the medical and technological advances locally. They should be evaluated on what they know, and be allowed to take just the classes they need to get "up to par" and not have to take all medical education from scratch over again.

OK why not have only doctors for cuba and mexico do all the medical care for illegals? Use them and keep our LEGAL AMERICAN doctors for LEGAL AMERICANS. Heck this way illegals get the same care they would back in their homeland.

At their urging, Singh came to the U.S. in 2000. He said he thought "that I'll be getting the same job, I'll be getting into a good field, make a good life."

He can't have seriously thought that, could he?

Reading some of the hot comments from various sources on this article seems that it sparked a lot of contraversy from readers. Readers posting about tens of millions of Americans w/o work or underemployed and how we need to take care of our own first.

I however some a bit more insight in this which of course the article doesn't care to talk about. Living in the Philippines as a retired American for a few years among traveling a LOT in my life I've seen many things. First off don't trust a doctor that was trained in a non western country or from a major international school. Same goes for nurses and many other careers. I find it ridiculous at how uneducated and stupid doctors can be in various countries. For instance I went into the ER twice (nighttime/weekend) because of my son being very sick. The following 3rd day I went into my peditricians office. In the ER with the doctor the first time I said it looks like a form of measles or some such. Doctor however quickly dismissed that. Second day I came in saying I did some research and looks to be Rubella (German Measles).... doctor again quickly dismissed. Well checked my son into inpatient care as he was in a lot of pain and not eating and later the following morning his Peditrician came in and right off the bat diagnosed Rubella (German Measles). Pissed me off royally.

Anyways again and again I find doctors, nurses, teachers, and many other educated jobs in other non western countries often lacking in their training. 9/10 foreign nurses (non western) fail the US Nursing exam for whatever state. The average is 6 tries to pass the exam to get liscenced.

So yah, least from my experience many of these foreign trained and educated individuals they can't hold up to American and western standards w/o usually full retraining. Seriously... are RN duties laundry and cleaning up after a patient as that's 2/3 of the training in most Nursing schools in the Philippines...

NEW YORK—After finishing medical school in Bogota, Colombia, Maria Anjelica Montenegro did it all—obstetrics, pediatrics, emergency medicine. Since she has moved to the United States, her resume includes jobs as sales clerk, babysitter, and medical assistant.

The 34-year-old woman's situation reflects a trend that some researchers call "brain waste." The term refers to immigrants who were skilled professionals in their own countries, but can't find work in the U.S. that makes full use of their education or training.

The fact she has all this so called "medical experience" at only 34 (how long has she been in the United States) leads me to believe the standards are much less to practice medicine in Columbia than in the United States.

By the time most doctors in the United States graduate from college, then medical school and then complete their residency, they are already 30 years old! In other words, most doctors in the US do not even being their medical careers until they are in their early 30's.

And yet this medical whiz from Columbia has already done it all at 34! Ok....

I think a big cause would be the language barrier. I saw a doctor once whose accent was so thick, I couldn’t understand him. After having him repeat things many times, I could finally glean what he was saying. It’s not just that you speak English, you need to communicate effectively. I find it hard enough to understand doctors that speak English perfectly and I won’t accept one that doesn’t. My health isn’t worth the risk of a misunderstanding. If you don’t speak the language of the land, or speak it well, what kind of job should you expect?

I don’t think this is a fair article because it doesn’t differentiate between legal immigrants and illegal aliens. It also doesn’t compare to the legal (non-immigrant) population at large.

"I used to have money, I used to have good life," Singh said. "Over here, I'm hand to mouth."

Welcome to my world Singh. At least I don’t have another country to fall back on.

I wholeheartedly SUPPORT Legal Immigrants. It is a long and expensive process to come here legally and become a citizen and shows a sense of purpose and responsibility and have to prove that they will not be a welfare burden and have no criminal past. Although I still don't understand how George Soros gained citizenship after he had been expelled from 2 countries.

I have had several very fine Doctors that were from India and Canada. One had to meet additional requirements in the US before he could obtain his license to practice. Another, a specialist in infectious disease, had to become a citizen in order to apply at the CDC, she was my neighbor and I celebrated with her when she finally, after 7 years, became a citizen.

Illegals tend to come without any respect to this country except to view it as a cash machine for Mexico and their personal gain. They don't speak the language of this country and suck off of social services by producing children, many of which they set up as dual citizens with their home countries, that the citizens of this country pay to educate. They work for cash, they use forged documents, fake identities and live in a lawless subculture that they have been allowed to create. They have no respect for our laws many have a criminal past that they continue in this country at the expense of innocent people.

They operate the same as any criminal cartel has ever operated in this country and our government has allowed this to happen in order to appease the UN Agenda 21 on Migration and bring in the New World Order. The recent action in Libya should be a wake up call the power play by the UN and the willingness of our administration to act on UN orders instead complying with our Constitution.

"I used to help many sick people in my country, now I wait tables and babysit!"

"I used to have money, I used to have a good life, Singh said "Over here I'm hand to mouth!"

If things were so good back home how come he came here?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

"I used to have money, I used to have a good life, Singh said "Over here I'm hand to mouth!"

If things were so good back home how come she came here?

That quote was about another guy, if you read the article you would have seen he came at the urging of his children who lived here

Mohan Singh, 55, thought moving to the United States would be a smooth transition. Born and raised in India, he left his home country for Kuwait, where he worked in air conditioning and elevator maintenance. He lived in Kuwait for 25 years, started his own company and was successful enough to send his daughter and son to college in the United States.

At their urging, Singh came to the U.S. in 2000. He said he thought "that I'll be getting the same job, I'll be getting into a good field, make a good life."

here is her story:

Montenegro came to the United States in 2004 to care for her mother, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She stayed after marrying a man she met here, and became an American citizen. She now lives in the New York borough of Queens with her husband and two children.